Financial analysis uses accounting and other financial information to help administrators relate costs to benefits or effectiveness to assist with both short- and long-range decisions. (Author/SSH)

A benefit-cost analysis of the 1970 census emphasizes the allocative uses of data. Precedents for evaluating the production, analysis and dissemination of forecasts and projections, data used for determining allocations, and physical monitoring data are discussed. Benefit-cost analysis' greatest potential value may be for social monitoring data.…

Offers background information on cost-per-hire. Includes reflections offered by human resources officials who discuss how they calculate this statistic and how they use it. Explains difficulties associated with calculating cost-per-hire, provides a sample worksheet, and uses a case study to show how this cost might be lowered. (RJM)

Discusses why it is essential to look at costs related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty not simply as a critical expense, but as part of an intentional investment strategy meant to produce an important and significant value-added benefit. Offers advice on planning, financing, and assessing this investment. (EV)

Policymakers often use Rate of Return information in formulating public resource allocation decisions. The World Bank uses this strategy to advise developing nations in setting student subsidy levels, tuition, and allocation by educational level. However, Rate of Return may be an inappropriate policy device for these objectives. (Author/MSE)

Budget decisions in large institutions should be decentralized. Decentralization can be accomplished by responsibility center budgeting, block budgeting, or combinations thereof. The system should be designed so that organization unit heads have maximum incentive to be efficient and to optimize decisions on an institutionwide basis where…

An examination of data on school expenditures between 1966-1967 and 1990-1991 in nine school districts chosen as representative of districts nationwide revealed that most of the new resources going to public education in the last 25 years was spent to achieve goals other than academic achievement for students in the regular school program. (MLF)

Surveys costs of education in China, focusing on three areas: national expenditures on education; unit cost of education; and educational cost functions. Relates the analysis of education costs to four enduring policy issues: resource mobilization, inequality, inequity, and inefficiency. Compared with other Asian countries, China's public…

This article urges leaders at institutions of higher education to analyze the decision to pursue a Total Quality Management improvement strategy in the same way as any other strategy--as a return on investment. Evidence of costs and benefits of TQM from industry and campus is summarized, and barriers to a "return on quality investment" mindset are…

Presents solutions for the problem of maximizing the generalizability coefficient under a budget constraint. Shows that the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality can be applied to derive optimal continuous solutions for the number of conditions of each facet. Illustrates the formal similarity between optimization problems in survey sampling and…

A study analyzed detailed expenditure reports of nine typical U.S. school districts for 1967, 1991, and 1996. From 1967 to 1996, special education's share jumped from 4% to 18% of all spending, whereas regular education's share fell from 80% to 57%. Furthermore, 40% of new funds went for special education; 23% for regular education. Implications…

This commentary on a study comparing use of the brand name drug Depakene with generic valproic acid to control seizures in people with mental retardation focuses on issues of cost-effectiveness. It notes existing guidelines for pharmacoeconomic evaluation and suggests a possible model to include a threshold price (per quality-adjusted life year)…

This article reviews key applied research issues relevant to people with autism, including: systems delivery models and issues, how best to integrate treatments, providing treatments to those with limited monetary resources, cost and cost/benefit analyses, how to educate adult psychiatrists regarding autism, and gaps between research and practice.…

The current debate about class size is not centered on whether smaller class sizes are desirable. Rather, the debate is whether the costs involved are the best ways to spend taxpayers' monies. This analysis addresses this question for the state of Florida. Using the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a measure of educational achievement, a…